The present invention relates to a paper sheet collecting apparatus for collecting paper sheets one by one into a collecting chamber and, more specifically, to an improvement of a paper sheet collecting apparatus in which paper sheets successively fed from a conveying path are guided and collected into a collecting chamber held between vanes of a rotating vane wheel.
In conventional bank note rearrangers, for example, bank notes fed collectively are taken out one by one. After the takeout, the bank notes are discriminated and classified into reusable notes (correct notes) and non-reusable notes (damaged notes), and are assortatively collected in accordance with the results of the discrimination. The collected bank notes are half-wrapped in blocks of one hundred.
Usually, in the bank note rearrangers of this type, bank notes fed to a supply unit are successively taken out and transferred along a conveying path in a manner such that the longitudinal axes of the bank notes are at right angles to the transfer direction. The transferred notes are passed through a correct/damaged discrimination unit, and then classified by a correct/damaged classification unit. Then, the correct and damaged bank notes are successively collected and piled into their corresponding collecting chambers.
In the apparatus constructed so that bank notes are fed directly from the conveying path into the collecting chambers, however, if the bank notes are transferred successively and at a relatively high speed, a following bank note will be fed before a preceding bank note is entirely collected. Accordingly, the forward end of the following bank note will often run against the rear end of the foregoing bank note, disordering or preventing the collecting operation.
Recently, therefore, a collecting apparatus has been developed for practical use in which paper sheets or bank notes P, fed from a conveying path 10 formed of a conveyor belt, are temporarily held between adjacent pairs of vanes 14 of a vane wheel 12, and are then guided into a collecting chamber 16 as the vane wheel 12 rotates, as shown in FIG. 1. According to this prior art collecting apparatus, the bank notes P successively fed at high speed from the conveying path 10 can be collected into the collecting chamber 16 in an orderly manner. This apparatus is also provided with a separator 18 which can rock around the rotating shaft of the vane wheel 12. The separator 18 is rocked from a position A (indicated by a solid line) through a position B (indicated by a broken line) to a position C (indicated by two-dot chain line) when a predetermined number of bank notes P, e.g., 100 sheets, have been guided into the collecting chamber 16. In the position C, the following bank notes P are temporarily collected on a receiving portion 20 of the separator 18. Thus, the conventional collecting apparatus can perform continuous processing without suspending the collecting operation.
In the prior art collecting apparatus of this vane-wheel type, however, the receiving portion 20 of the separator 18 needs to be relatively long for satisfactory collection. Therefore, the following bank notes P cannot be fed before the receiving portion 20 entirely passes through a bank note discharge section of the conveying path 10. Thus, the transfer pitch for the bank notes P cannot be narrowed, constituting a great hindrance to the improvement of the speed of bank note collection. Moreover, the forward ends of the bank notes P fed from the conveying path 10 would run against and rebound upon the end face of an arm portion 22 of the separator 18 to disturb the collection of the bank notes P.